When I asked for suggestions for a new detective series to listen to during walks, a friend recommended the Varg Veum series by Gunnar Staalesen, who is often described as the father of Nordic noir. I began with We Shall Inherit the Wind though I understand it is not the first of the series. As so often happens, not all the books have been translated and translations do not always begin at the beginning. Nonetheless, this book turned out to be a good place to start since it marks a major change in Varg’s life.

Varg, whose name means wolf, is an ex-social worker who has become a private investigator working in Bergen, Norway. Ranveig Mæland, a friend of Varg’s fiancée Karin, asks Varg to investigate the disappearance of her husband Mons. Mons owns land on a remote island which is being considered for a controversial wind farm. Just as all interested parties and opponents to the plan are to gather on the island, Mons has gone missing. As Varg searches for Mons and later checks into a land sale, he uncovers business and family secrets.

The book touches not only on disappearances, one in the past and one in the present, and dubious business dealings but also on environmental terrorism and religious fanaticism.

Varg is a likeable character though he is, as he readily admits, not perfect. He will not stop until all his questions are answered and though this may be admirable, it is also a flaw. This determination has him making an error for which he pays a tragically high price. Yet afterwards, even when the case is finished, he continues investigating on his own because he wants to confirm his suspicions about an unsolved case from the past.

Another trait that stands out is his stoicism. He rarely displays his feelings, though his thoughts reveal that he is capable of deep emotions. The ending suggests that difficulties may lie ahead for Varg because he doesn’t know how to deal with his feelings.

Varg is 65 years old; as befits his age, he is more old-fashioned in his approach. He relies on deductive reasoning; he is not the gun-toting tough guy who manhandles suspects.

My one problem with the book is the names of the characters, and there are lots of them. Because I was listening, not reading, I often became confused with the many similar-sounding names who, to me, are foreign.

I appreciate that though there are some unexpected twists, the clues are there. Things that didn’t feel right prove to have not felt right for a legitimate reason. All the reader has to do is pay close attention and, like Varg, use his/her deductive thinking skills.

I quite enjoyed my introduction to this series, so much so that I’ve already downloaded the next book. I look forward to spending my morning walks in the company of Varg Veum.

Note: Please check out my reader's blog (https://schatjesshelves.blogspot.com/) and follow me on Twitter (@DCYakabuski). ( )

Would I have liked this book as much if it had been set in Australia? or Belgium? To be honest I don’t think I would have.

A standard crime/detective novel which offers nothing new or even interesting but it is well written and holds itself all the way through. I found some of it predictable and thought it was too formulaic and that held it back in lots of ways. ( )

My first book by this author. The style is very casual and approachable so it is easy to get drawn into the story. The main character is a private detective called Varg Vellum who is very down to earth and friendly, not at all the hard-boiled or aggressive detective type. This one is about a man who has disappeared. Finding out what happened to him leads Varg to unearth a can of worms. Easy to read, enjoyable. Fairly suspenseful but not overly tense or terrifying, more of what they call a cosy mystery. ( )

I bought 'We Shall Inherit the Wind' having read, and thoroughly enjoyed a later book in Gunnar Staalesen's series about Norwegian private investigator Varg Veum ('Where Roses Never Die'). I did so in the belief that it is the first book in the series, as indicated by Amazon. Although it is indeed an earlier book in the series, it is by no means the opening story (as far as I can tell it is number 18, of which at least 7 appear to have been translated into English).
However, this really didn't matter, as both books can be read and thoroughly enjoyed without the need to have a detailed understanding of prior events.
The plot to 'We Shall Inherit the Wind' involves around plans to develop a wind farm on an island off the coast of Norway. Mons Mæland, a developer, who owns the land on the island on which the wind farm is to be built, goes missing and Varg Veum is hired by his wife to discover his whereabouts. It soon becomes clear that different interest groups have strong feelings on whether or not the wind farm should go ahead. Veum is also struck by the fact that Mæland's first wife went missing several years before this and her body never discovered. Unfortunately Mæland's body does turn up a few days later - he has clearly been murdered - and Veum is determined to discover who would do this and what links all the various events.
This is a first rate tale which should appeal to everyone who enjoys well-written crime thrillers. ( )

This book is a well-plotted, well-written, and well-translated Norwegian crime novel that kept me turning the pages, and delivered a big surprise at the end. Staalesen wrote his first Varg Veum novel in the 1970's, and the series has been going strong since then (at least in Norwegian: at present only five of the sixteen novels in the series appear to be available in English). This, the fourteenth entry in the series, was released in 2010. It begins with a bang: the hero is sitting beside the hospital bed of his unconscious and gravely injured girlfriend, blaming himself for her predicament. How did things get to this point? That question is the engine that drives the story, and it works like a charm. We are presented with a cast of dour Norwegian characters with lots of old history connecting them, and with a very modern dispute about a wind farm, with personal and political ramifications. All of this unfolds in the vividly evoked landscape of western Norway, lonely and sea swept, but so interesting that I found myself checking out locations on Wikipedia. This is the first Varg Veum novel I have read, though I have seen some of the TV movies. It certainly won't be the last -- I just purchased "Cold Hearts" -- and I very much hope that more are translated. ( )